1 Corinthians 15:1-11 | "The Grace of God"
[1 Corinthians] • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 27:56
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· 1,661 viewsSunday, October 24, 2021. 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 | "The Grace of God." The apostle writes to remind the church in Corinth about the gospel he preached and that they believed - or so he thought? At the same time, the apostle preaches this gospel to himself as a reminder that his labor is not in vain, all because of God's grace. This message preaches from 1 Corinthians 15:1-11. It is part of a preaching series through 1 Corinthians "To The Church." The title of this sermon is "The Grace of God."
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I. Reading of Scripture
I. Reading of Scripture
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,
2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
This is God’s Word, Amen.
[ Scripture Reading ~2 min. ]
II. The Exhortation
II. The Exhortation
Do you remember when you first believed the gospel?
John Newton, writing in the year 1772, penned the words to the famous hymn “Amazing Grace.”
The second verse reads:
’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed!
For some of us, we may remember a moment of time. It may be an hour we can point to and say: “That was it — THAT was when I first believed.”
For others of us, we may not have the hour nailed down, but we know that an hour exists, we have a testimony, we have a story that says we first believed.
Do you remember when you first believed?
Now, I want to ask you a follow up question.
Do you STILL believe?
Do you still BELIEVE what you BELIEVED?
Brothers and sisters, the answer to that question makes all the difference in the world.
Do you still believe what you believed?
Or did you believe in vain?
The apostle writes in verse 11:
11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
The apostle says of his labor among the Corinthians: “We preach” — that’s the present tense, a present action.
And in response to that action, the apostle says of them, the Corinthians: “You believed” — that’s past tense, a past action.
[ Show Slide ]
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,
In verse 1, he addresses them as “brothers” and says: “you received.” Again, a past action.
But then in verse 2, the apostle raises a possibility at, that should get them thinking about their faith.
[ Show Slide ]
2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
He does not think that this is true of them, but nevertheless, it is here, a possibility in a passing phrase, a short clause, the words:
“unless you believed in vain.”
“I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.”
What does it mean, to believe in vain?
It means to believe without careful thought. Without due consideration. To believe in a haphazard manner. To believe to no purpose. (BDAG).
“Unless your belief,” in other words, “was useless.” (TTC).
Church, What could cause such a “useless” believing?
Jesus said:
26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?
A person who first builds without counting the cost, believes in vain.
Salvation is not cheap, or quick, or emotionally driven. That kind of salvation has been promoted for many decades as a one-and-done checkbox, a walking of an aisle, a repeated prayer — through special events or revivals or mission trips that are all meant to be the beginning of something that lasts, but instead it is short-lived.
The cost of salvation is not considered nor counted.
Jesus said:
26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
Our lives are not built upon sand.
Our lives are built upon the rock.
Salvation bears fruit of patience. It perseveres.
The salvation process is an enduring, lifelong work of God’s grace. Day by day. Week by week. Year by year. Hearing and holding fast to the word, to the gospel of God’s grace.
What about when you believed?
Did you believe in vain?
How do you know?
III. The Teaching
III. The Teaching
The apostle introduces a new subject here in Chapter 15, and he doesn’t do it in his characteristic way, responding to a question and saying “now concerning.” It may be that he is not responding to question at all.
Instead, he runs head on into a subject that was familiar to the Corinthians, and a subject that is foundational to his labor as an apostle and preacher among them.
He writes:
15.1
15.1
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,
15.2
15.2
2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
[ Change Slide ]
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,
The apostle is reminding them, but also revealing again to them, the gospel that he first preached, and continues to preach.
The word “gospel” is the Greek word [ εὐαγγέλιον ] where we get our word “evangel” or “evangelism.”
A gospel is good news — proclaimed! THE gospel is the good news about God’s grace through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
So the apostle “preached” the gospel.
In verse 1, the word translated “preached” is not the word for “preaching” used elsewhere. Here, it is the verbal form of the word for “gospel.”
And so what the apostle is saying, is “I make known to you the gospel which I gospelized to you.”
Every one of us can do this work of “gospelizing.” “Evangelizing.” Proclaiming the good news of God’s grace in Jesus Christ.
And notice in verse 1, what happened as the apostle “preached” or “gospelized” —
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,
“which you received”
There is a back-and-forth here. The apostle preaches — The people receive.
To receive is to “take close.” To take it in. And the Corinthians did that, they received the gospel message.
But that is where it stops for most people. Receiving only.
For many, that’s what it means to believe. To hear a message, and agree with that message. To simply receive it.
But that was not all the Corinthians did with what they heard and received.
The apostle goes on —
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,
They are actively standing in that message. Which means, they are remaining in it. They have a gospel “state of mind.”
When the rain falls — they stand.
When the floods come — they stand.
When the winds blow and beat against the house — they stand, firmly established in that message that they have received.
But still, that’s not all!
How does one stand in this way, so firmly established?
And the answer comes in the next verse, by a work that we cannot perform for ourselves, by a work that is done for us, by someone outside of us.
2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
“and by which you are being saved”
We stand, because God is saving us day by day.
God saves us, and God continues to save us.
It is because God continues to work His salvation in us, by His grace, that we are able to stand in what we have received and heard.
God does the saving, we need only to hold fast to His word - His message.
2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
What does it mean to “hold fast to the word”?
It means to continue to believe and act accordingly (LN). It means “to continue to follow.” (LN).
“Holding fast” to the word means “obeying the word.” It means that the word is at work in us, calling us to continual faith and obedience.
This is the cost of discipleship. This is the purpose of belief - to act in that belief. That is faith!
This faith is what separates someone who receives only, from someone who receives, stands, and is being saved — holding fast to the word.
“unless you believed in vain.”
Unless — you thought the gospel wasn’t actually going to change your life, producing fruit in you.
Unless — you thought the gospel wasn’t actually going to cost you something.
This is what it means to believe. It is the dual nature of trusting and obeying. Hearing and doing. Having received, continuing to stand, and holding fast to the word.
Remember again, that this letter is addressed “to the church” not to individuals.
1 Corinthians 10:12 warned —
12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
We cannot stand alone. We must stand together as the church. You need the Church, and the Church needs you. We must believe and obey together. And all of us together must hold fast to the word!
Most of us think too highly of ourselves to be of any concern to the devil. Most of us think too highly of ourselves to experience true spiritual attack individually.
But OH - get the Church right, get the assembly of the believers right, who are standing together, who are being saved together, who are holding fast to the word together - and the devil mobilizes all the forces of Hell against that! That’s when we’ll start to experience real spiritual conflict.
You and I may fall, but the Church will never fall. The Church will make the gates of Hell fall. The devil is far less concerned about you or me, but he pays attention to us who assemble in Christ’s name and obey Him.
The apostle goes on to explain this gospel to them again.
15.3
15.3
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
15.4
15.4
4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
15.5
15.5
5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
[ CHANGE SLIDE ]
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
Christ died. He was buried. He was raised. He appeared.
40 But all things should be done decently and in order.
The work of God in Christ for salvation was fitting and orderly.
It was fitting because of our need. It was orderly because of God’s plan.
The apostle did not make this gospel up. The message he proclaimed was the same message that was delivered to him.
If the Corinthians chose not to believe it, it was their own fault - not Paul’s. He didn’t leave anything out, and he didn’t add anything to it. And he preached this gospel to them as a matter of first importance - a priority above all else (see S. Zodhiates, 19).
“Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.”
Notice how the apostle includes himself among those who have sinned.
“Christ died for our sins.”
This message that saved them saved him!
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Sin is the opposite of trusting and obeying God. Sin acts contrary to God’s will and God’s ways. Sin is evil. Sin is wrong. And every one of us have sinned, and as a consequence we become sinners, we become evil, we become wrongdoers and enemies of God. We deserve death.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
But “Christ died for our sins.”
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
Notice that “sins” is plural. Only one sin will damn us! But Christ died for them all.
Jesus gave his life in exchange for our lives.
He who knew no sin, became sin for us.
4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
“he was buried”
The burial is the final act of death. It speaks of death’s reality and permanence.
Someone else buries us, because if we are already dead, we can’t do that for ourselves.
There is no second chance.
People spend time planning their funerals as if they are somehow going to be there to make sure it all goes according to plan. The funerals, the burials are for the living, not those who are already dead.
A person who dies without God’s salvation in Christ, enters into something permanent in death. Hell and the lake of fire, is unending. It goes on, and on, and on, and on, and on forever - there is no escape.
There is nothing we can do after we die to change our minds or our beliefs then. It will be too late then.
“Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that … “
he was raised
This one is different from the rest, in that this action is not just something that happened in the past.
That Christ died, that Christ was buried - those happened in the past. They are not going to happen again.
In the Greek language, "he was raised” is in the “perfect” tense. Meaning, this is something that happened in the past, but still has meaning for the present.
“Having been raised from death by God, Jesus is alive now and forevermore!” (Bruce, 139).
This is necessary for what the apostle will teach in the rest of this chapter. The resurrection is necessary for our ability to hold fast to the word and be saved.
4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
he appeared
This means, the resurrected Christ was seen by them. They were eyewitnesses to his resurrection.
This forms the early Christian creed. This is the Gospel message in its simplest form.
This is what we believe and stand in to this day.
The apostle goes on —
15.6
15.6
6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
15.7
15.7
7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
15.8
15.8
8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
Paul legitimizes his calling by the will of God to be an apostle, a special messenger of Jesus, by reminding the church that he too, has seen the risen Savior.
Jesus appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus.
But Paul does not have a high view of himself. For he says:
15.9
15.9
9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
15.10
15.10
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
As this section comes to a close, the apostle gets to the heart of the matter.
He does not yet expound the wonders of the resurrection, as he will. Instead, he speaks about grace.
“the grace of God” — “his grace”
Grace that made him, a sinner, unworthy, a persecutor of Christ’s church — grace that made him what he is now —
“I am what I am.”
He’s not excusing what he was. He’s not saying “well that’s just the way I am.” Instead, he’s explaining the gospel of grace through his own personal testimony.
Look at the labor of the apostle in all of this text:
“I would remind you...”
“the gospel I preached to you...”
“the word I preached to you...”
“For I delivered to you...”
“what I also received...”
“I am the least...”
“I persecuted the church of God...”
“I am what I am...”
“I worked harder than any of them...”
Perhaps the apostle was wondering if it was all worth it?
Have they really believed? Do they really know? Do they really hold fast?
But in all of the labor, after all of the “I” statements, the apostle comes to one conclusion.
1 Corinthians 15:10 ESV
“…though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”
All of the “I’s” became a “NOT I” in Christ.
This brings us to the —
IV. The [Christ] Conclusion
IV. The [Christ] Conclusion
This is the gospel of the grace of God.
It is a message about God’s gift that we do not deserve, and cannot earn.
Christ, the promised One of God, the Son of God, the Living Word, did what was required for us to be forgiven so that we might live for God and for His glory.
Christ labored in a work of making himself nothing, so that the Father might be glorified in Him.
The apostle is reminding the Corinthians of the gospel. I wonder how much, he is at the same time, reminding Himself of that same gospel?
We all need the gospel. Day by day. Week by week. Year by year. We need it repeated to us. Rehearsed among us. Because we all need God’s sustaining grace.
It is by the grace of God we are what we are!
15.11
15.11
11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
The apostle doesn’t stop preaching. The preacher doesn’t stop preaching.
And Church - we don’t stop believing! We don’t stop trusting. We don’t stop obeying.
Is the grace of God evident in your life?
The apostle writes in another place —
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Amen.
[ 3,557 words; 30 minutes ]